July 23rd, 2015

Let’s start where all things should start, peanut butter milkshakes, most needed after 16 plus hour bus journeys through mountain roads with lots of troublesome altitude changes.  Luckily the restaurant in our hostel:  Desert Nights, has them, and they are good and cold, only made to taste better by the heat and the seemingly endless sound that surrounds Huacachina, a tiny oasis in the sprawling desert just outside of Ica Peru.

We spend most of our first morning in Huacachina trying to relax in the hostel before finally deciding to do something, you see, it’s Rob’s birthday and after the celebration they had for me in Arequipa Bethan and I know we have to make it a special one, so we head into Ica, hopping into a small taxi for 6 soles, with one thing on our mind, Cake, and not just for eating.

We head to a recommended bakery in town and find an amazing selection of cakes, all too nice for our secondary purpose, but we do buy one huge chocolate one to enjoy, post other activity, before heading to the supermarket and buying a 16 Soles (5 USD) cake to bring back and have some fun with.

You’re probably scared by now of what we’re planning to do, but don’t worry, we’re just going to go into the desert and blow it up with one of Rob’s Bolivian Bangers.

We grab another taxi back to Huacachina, and take a brief break from the heat at our hostel to get our camera’s ready before heading up the massive sand dunes and into the desert, cake and a single rented sand board (5 soles for the day from the hostel for the low quality ones, but they barely work).

We get up out of sight of the little tourist town while dune buggies zip past us up the dunes, making the climbs look easy, and a few distant sand boarders dot the top of the biggest dune, some zipping down it with impressive speed.

Rob tries with the hand cut wood and wax on one of the smaller dunes, but finds the board barely slides, so we put off sand boarding and set to our main purpose, explosions.

We position the camera’s set the charge and Rob, the lighter man run’s like hell.  The sparkler we’ve jury rigged to the firecracker lights first to provide a festive atmosphere, A dune buggy speeds by alarmingly close to us and we’re sure we’re headed for Peruvian jail, but it leaves us in it’s dust and before long Kabloooey!!!  There’s cake everywhere.  Here’s the videos you’ve all been waiting for. Happy birthday Rob!

And some pictures for good measure.

We cover the evidence in sand, collecting all the plastic and non bio-degradable bits carefully, since the desert outside Huacachina is sadly already dirty enough, then the heat gets the best of us and we head back to the hostel for cake and more Peanut Butter Milkshakes.

The next day we head out, Rob and Bethan with better sand boards (10 Soles per day from the Hostel), and me remembering my few skiing and snowboarding experiences, just with a book and a camera.  I climb up far enough for a greta view of the untainted desert before settling down as Rob, Bethan, and an american friend from the hostel climb higher and higher up the dunes.  To me I can’t figure out how this sport can be worth it, as the walk back up this massive thing is only going to be gruelling in the heat and take easily 20 times longer than the ride down.

Still They seem to enjoy it well enough, even if we only do one ride before heading back to town for one last peanut butter milkshake and some more leftover’s of Robs non exploded birthday cake, before heading on to our next destination, Paracas,  Peru’s poor man Galapagos, to which we end up taking a private taxi transfer 70 Soles, since it’s only an extra 5 soles compared to the bus.

For those looking to spend more time in Huacachina, there are lots of great options to spend more time, including dune buggie tours, Sandboarding with a dune buggie that drives you up the dunes, and even an overnight trip camping in the desert including sand-boarding and a full barbecue for about 70 USD (too rich for our blood but still tempting and everything is bookable through your hostel, or also direct with drivers)

Hostelling international Desert Nights was comfortable and decent, and the milkshakes are to die for, so if you’re looking for a safe bet on a decent place to stay, I can recommend it, though there may be even better places in town.

Here’s a few more sand boarding pictures for good measure.